One of our balloons has had quite a journey over the past few weeks. It did a lap around the world in 22 days, and has just clocked the project’s 500,000th kilometer as it begins its second lap. It enjoyed a few loop-de-loops over the Pacific ocean before heading east on the winds toward Chile and Argentina, and then made its way back around near Australia and New Zealand. Along the way, it caught a ride on the Roaring Forties — strong west-to-east winds in the southern hemisphere that act like an autobahn in the sky, where our balloons can quickly zoom over oceans to get to where people actually need them.

Traversing the stratosphere is particularly challenging this time of year because the winds actually change direction as the southern hemisphere moves from warmer to colder weather, resulting in divergent wind paths that are hard to predict. Since last June, we’ve been using the wind data we’ve collected during flights to refine our prediction models and are now able to forecast balloon trajectories twice as far in advance. In addition, the pump that moves air in or out of the balloon has become three times more efficient, making it possible to change altitudes more rapidly to quickly catch winds going in different directions. There were times, for example, when this balloon could have been pulled into the polar vortex – large, powerful wind currents that whip around in a circle near the stratosphere in the polar region – but these improvements enabled us to maneuver around it and stay on course. We can spend hours and hours running computer simulations, but nothing teaches us as much as actually sending the balloons up into the stratosphere during all four seasons of the year.

Take a look through our photo album to see some of the specific improvements that have been made to the balloon technology, thanks to the lessons we’ve learned in flight.﻿

Your kid is only in seventh grade and already you’re having trouble helping her prepare for her geometry test? No problem—just ask the #GoogleSearch app to “calculate the volume of a cone” and salvage your reputation as world’s smartest parent. You can ask a host of geometry-related questions, from “What is the surface of a pyramid?” to "How do you calculate the area of a circle with a diameter of 12 inches?"—helping you keep up as the shapes get more complex! ﻿

For detailed instructions on how to set up IP masking, follow the instructions in the Developer Guide for either Universal Analytics (analytics.js), classic Google Analytics (ga.js), or as an EasyTracker parameter in the SDK for Android apps.

The changes you need to make depend on which tracking code you’re using. See if you have Classic Analytics (ga.js) or Universal Analytics (analytics.js). - +Google Analytics ﻿

When we launched Google+ over three years ago, we had a lot of restrictions on what name you could use on your profile. This helped create a community made up of real people, but it also excluded a number of people who wanted to be part of it without using their real names.

Over the years, as Google+ grew and its community became established, we steadily opened up this policy, from allowing +Page owners to use any name of their choosing to letting YouTube users bring their usernames into Google+. Today, we are taking the last step: there are no more restrictions on what name you can use.

We know you've been calling for this change for a while. We know that our names policy has been unclear, and this has led to some unnecessarily difficult experiences for some of our users. For this we apologize, and we hope that today's change is a step toward making Google+ the welcoming and inclusive place that we want it to be. Thank you for expressing your opinions so passionately, and thanks for continuing to make Google+ the thoughtful community that it is.﻿

Info entrepreneur who likes medium data, the Tar Heels and human computer information retrieval. Tom Ciszek is an information scientist with a deep understanding of information organization, data analysis, webometrics, and digital marketing optimization. Prior to co-founding Cojoin, he worked at a publishing startup in Los Angeles, as a manager at a leading search marketing agency, and as a researcher and think-tank policy analyst where he specialized in cybersecurity and information economics.

His industry research interests include the analysis and organization of "medium data," recommender systems for information visualization, marketing biometrics, qualitative methods, and human-computer interaction.

Thomas holds a master’s degree in information science and a bachelor’s degree in mathematical decision sciences from the University of North Carolina where he was a Morehead-Cain Scholar.

Love this place! My GF gets us dinner from this place a few times a week after yoga. I'll eat whatever Simply Salad salad she brings home - never knew salads could be so good and so filling!
Not only is it better - it is also $3-5 cheaper than that other salad place on Main Street!

Four minute car wash that doesn't beat an automatic wash.
When the quarters are dropping and there is no line, you can't beat it for a quick pay and spray at the beach. Some vacuums help. There are two change machines - one accepts $1s AND $5s the other only takes $1 bills. Never used the brushes but they're there if your automobile needs a brushing.